Aldi aims to leave rivals in its wake by adding 60 new stores March 23, 2015 Discount retailer Aldi looks set to outpace the big four this year as it ramps up plans for further expansion by opening 60 new stores in the UK this year. While the chain opened its first UK outlet 25 years ago, it was not until the onset of the financial crisis – and the subsequent [...]
City boss Gerry Grimstone: The buck has to stop with board directors March 23, 2015 Who is to blame when a banker many tiers from the top of the firm misbehaves? The banker alone? Their manager? The boss of their division? The chief executive? It can be chaotic working out who should be punished in a vast organisation across dozens of countries and hundreds of thousands of workers. But there [...]
CityFibre gets revenue boost but losses grow March 23, 2015 CityFibre saw its revenues rocket last year but failed to stem rising losses on its bottom line, the firm revealed this morning. The fibre optic specialist is the largest independent provider of fibre infrastructure in the UK, with a focus on Britain’s mid-sized cities, including York, Coventry and Doncaster. The firm’s specialisation in pure [...]
Household debt to hit £10,000: Borrowers more exposed to hike in interest rates March 23, 2015 British borrowers are more vulnerable to an interest rate rise than ever before after new figures showed unsecured household borrowings hit an all-time high last year. Unsecured debt rose nine per cent in 2014 to a record £239bn in cash terms, or £9,000 per household, driven by an increase in student loans and credit card [...]
Quindell March 22, 2015 The numbers Quindell has reported Here's why it's interesting Quindell recently issued close to 850,000 shares as it moved to takeover Navseeker, after a legal dispute with the company. In early March, the troubled insurance outsourcer settled a US litigation in which it was claimed that Quindell and others had “misappropriated the entire value of [...]
Grexit: Spain ups the ante, saying no EU handouts for cash-strapped Greece until reforms are implemented March 22, 2015 If Greece was expecting an easy run in after last week’s summit, it can think again. Spain’s government has made it clear it expects Athens to put forward a comprehensive list of reforms and then ensure they are carried out, before it receives vital EU cash to help its floundering economy. Speaking in an interview [...]
FTSE 100 hits 7,000: The historical graph which charts the highs and lows of Britain’s blue-chip index March 20, 2015 It's finally done it: having peaked in 1999, and then again last month, the FTSE 100 has finally achieved the unachievable, breaching the hallowed 7,000 mark, proving a "psychological barrier" really is just a figment of the imagination. Since its 1999 peak, the index has yo-yoed, weathering 9/11 before bouncing back, then plummeting again as [...]
FTSE 100 closes above 7,000 as Europe agrees Greece deal March 20, 2015 The FTSE 100 closed about 7,000 points this evening, ending the day at 7,022 after breaching the "psychological" barrier for the first time this afternoon as Europe agreed a further bailout deal for Greece. It's the first time the index has ever risen as high as 7,000 – in 1999 it rose to 6,750, before [...]
Budget 2015: Gordon Brown beats George Osborne on job approval rating March 20, 2015 Now the dust has settled; the pollsters are digesting the public's reaction to Osborne's Budget and how they rate the chancellor. The good news for Osborne is that YouGov found for the first time since 2010 that more people approve if his job performance than disapprove. However, the chancellor of five years still failed to [...]
Greece will get EU funds after positive summit – Tsipras March 20, 2015 There could be light at the end of the tunnel for Greece after talks in Brussels ended with Prime Minsiter Alexis Tsipras calling the summit "positive". Greece, he said, can now proceed with talks to get EU funding as soon as possible. That funding will be forthcoming only if the country's creditors agree with the [...]